ERP Buyer's Guide for Small Businesses: Page 2

Aptean

Two companies, Intuitive ERP by Consona and Robb Enterprise ERP by CDC Software, merged in 2012 to form Aptean. The new company takes the SMB, midmarket and manufacturing backgrounds of its predecessors and also encompasses sales and marketing, financials and supply chain offerings.

Specific to ERP, its website shows nine different ERP products. This includes two Ross suites and Intuitive, as well as others that are each tailored to different areas of the manufacturing landscape. It offers a cloud-based suite as well.

Epicor

Epicor Software, a provider of business software for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations for over 40 years, increased its focus on SMB ERP when private equity firm Apax Partners merged Epicor with SMB ERP specialist Activant Solutions in 2011. Epicor serves the small, midmarket and enterprise sectors, and has more than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries.

abas ERP

Related Articles

abas Business Software includes ERP MRP and eBusiness, and is aimed mainly at midsize companies. This German company provides easy access via portals as well as a high degree of integration and a way to tailor workstations to users. Data can be combined and displayed as tables or charts if the user desires it. A CRM portal can also be integrated into abas to make processes for a customer or prospective customer visible. Additional portals deal with areas such as sales, purchasing, services and BI.

"Vendors are responding to users' needs to give more of their staff access to data held within ERP apps by working on bringing more of a common look-and-feel between particularly CRM and ERP apps," said China Martens, an analyst at Forrester. "The idea is that users can be within an ERP app but not know they're there and not require training to reach the information they require."